The_Gza

Following on from various discussions on driving habits I have a serious query resulting from a rather nasty experience last night.

Basically, emergency situation arose where I had to get from my house to my Mum & Dads (about a mile away). Reason for emergency – phone call from Mum to say Dad’s car was on fire!

Not knowing how seriously “on fire” the car was, I assumed the worst and headed with all speed to their house. I also knew that my Dad parks his car pretty close to the house, usually behind my Mums, and that being an auto, getting it clear of the house and other cars would be a problem too.

Whereupon lies my question - given that this was clearly (to me) an emergency situation, but not being an officer of the law, and without blue lights/sirens/big stripe up the side, how I am supposed to get people to move out of the road?? I know that legally, I had no right to be going any faster than anyone else, but then again, everyone else’s house wasn’t on fire. And I’m not bloody going to sit behind them at 25mph with my parents’ lives potentially in danger.

Perhaps some of our officer friends out there could give me a steer as to what I am/was supposed to do in a situation like this? Or what would the rest of us law abiding citizens have done?

I ended up putting all my headlights plus foggies on, and then when safe(ish) to do so, overtaking with the hazards on. I know that my response was probably not ideal, however the thought of getting to my Mum and Dad house to discover car + house + anything else well ablaze was not my idea of fun either.

One thing it has made me do thought – straight to Halfords at lunchtime to buy a Fire Extinguisher (Guardian VAN 103 - £25 - as recommended by Auto Express). If you don’t already have one, I recommend you give it some serious thought. After all, I realised how gutted I would feel watching my pride and joy going up in flames in front of me and not being able to do a thing about it.

Blackscooby

Did exactly the same yonks ago as a student after a fellow student decided to put his arm thou' the house window severing blood vessels.

Called ambulance ~ told would be 10 mins.
Told them we could get there faster (it was 3am). Hospital 2 miles away.

Fiat Panda 4*4. (don't say word !) All lights on, hazzards on.
Flew there, being very careful goes through red lights. BUT at 3am there aint that much traffic.

Mate watched for traffic etc whilst I concentrated on road.
Other mate in back looked after the "bloody" patient.

What else can you do in these situations ?

g4vln

Did the same when my first nipper was due.
Ambulance said 1/2 half. I said see you in 8 minutes. Sometimes you just have get on with and worry about it later.

ca

I had to rush my wife to hospital just before Christmas after she managed to badly scald herself while 7 months pregnant (she took the lid off one of those wallpaper stripping thigns and it spat the contents of it all over her head and shoulders.)

It was 3:30pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Hospital is about 3 miles away. Ambulance station half a mile away.

I should have dialled 999 but, basically, I paniced and decided to drive here there myself.

I just drove briskly with headlights and hazards on.

A&E were great. They looked at her straight away, managed to cool her down, gave her some painkillers and then I (very carefuly) drove home.

Next time (god forbid) I think I'd take 10 seconds to take a deep breath, think and then decide on the best course of action and stick to it.

C

Gary Foster

My pop had a similar problem a few years ago. His current wife was pregnant but she started to miscarry. Ambulance could not get there for half an hour so he drove flat out towards the nearest hospital, 3am and a 10 mile Journey.

Got stopped about 2 miles out - really travelling by a traffic copy, who thankfully offered to 'escort' him to the hospital - so off they went, blue lights and sirens going.

Said he'd never been so terrified in his life, not least getting the old 300ZX up to (uhum) quite some 3 figure speeds in built up areas.

Still, she survived although one of the twins was not so fortunate (other has a little brain damage).

Can't say I would have done anything differently myself (well I wouldn't have stopped for the police car).

Gary

BillyHeadcase

Gary.....what started out to be quite an amusing post turned a bit sour there, sorry to hear about the twins mate, nast business. GZA you never told us what the damage was? You'll make a good soap script writer my old son.

AWD

I've heard of quite a few cases when people rush to hospitals, and if the police stop them, they always offer to give them an escort.

The_Gza

Luckily the fire brigade arrived pretty soon after I got there. There was burning plastic dropping from the middle of the car and the passenger footwell had just started to flame until I gave it a blast with the hose

It took the fire brigade about an hour to stop it smoking because the insulation in the dashboard was glowing. The mechanic who arrived from the garage reckoned it was the heater motor which went on fire.

Result? 1x Merc CLK + fire inside dashboard + lightly BBQ for 1 hour = pretty much a write off. Thankfully no human casualties and house remains un-toasted.

Testament to Merc build quality - took 3x firemen + mechanic + crowbars etc nearly half an hour to remove enough of the dashboard to get in at where the fire had started (and was still smoking)

Sean 2.2

Here in the States it's basically the same deal. When I was living in Boston my roommate's girlfriend sliced off the tip of her finger while carving a pumpkin for Halloween. She proceeded to collect the part that had been cut off, ran into my room, held her hand up in front of the Webcam for all to see (don't ask) and had me drive her to the hospital.

I was pulled over for doing 107 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. The officer ran up to the car screaming waving his baton and, upon seeing the puddle of blood in my front seat and realizing that we were exactly three blocks from the hospital, quickly changed his attitude, yelled at me to floor it and followed us to the hospital with siren and lights blazing.

He actually sat in the waiting room while the tip was reattached to make sure she was okay. He also said he'd never seen a 1991 Ford Escort LX Wagon (1.8L NA family station wagon) go that fast before.

BladeRnnr

Gza .

tell your dad not to get a rangerover.......
we got one on fire and the bonnet wouldn't even dent (to gain access..of course!) after smashing at it with a 'hooligan' tool..!!!!
On the Merc
Plus if they had disconnected the battery then the wiring wouldn't have glowed for so long......But and this is a danger with mercs.....
They are built to store a residual charge to keep essential management systems 'alive'.

On the drive speed cenario.....

if you are on your way to hospital usually the local police are fine ,on your way to a fire though and it could be a bit thin if you have an accident....remember

ARRIVE ALIVE.....YOU CAN'T HELP ANYONE IF YOUR DEAD OR ARRESTED.

Extinguishers.

It is all very well having one but do you know how to correctly use it!!(i am not offending mearly applying caution)

If you have a bonnet fire ....it is possible if its been going for a while,that when you open the bonnet the fire will erupt into a larger problem owing to you letting more air(oxygen) in to feed the flames.

The Fire service is the ONLY emergency service in this country that has to arrive within set times at incidents.(so you won't have to wait long!!

m.

[This message has been edited by BladeRnnr (edited 04 November 2000).]

owbow

I managed to get a dollop of gasket stripper in my left eye working on my mum's car about 2 years ago, it was hurting like hell, and i could feel it working it's way around my eyeball every time i blinked...

Ran out to the rallycar, realised the petrol pipe was disconnected (i'd needed to clean some parts and had pumped some out earlier that day) grabbed the pipe, shoved it on, started the car, of course the petrol pipe popped off- 'leccy pump pouring lovely 4* everywhere very quickly! Jumped back out, threw bonnet aside, tightened the Jubilee clip... by now my eye is stuck shut.

Thrashed the living daylights out of the car 4 miles or so to the local hospital - passed in the silliest places but didn't force anybody to swerve or anything.

Arrived at the hospital in about 2 minutes - with Police T5 chasecar in pursuit, but as above, he was cool as soon as he realised what was going on.

Said he'd not seen a Mk1 Fiesta pushing 130mph in a 40 limit before though!!!

Worst thing was, there was nobody in the waiting room or reception desk there - so i walked straight through to the treatment rooms, where a few doctors were chatting with 3 nurses... they directed me to the eye room - and left me waiting for about 5-6 minutes with this s**t eating into my eyeball!!! There was NOBODY else being treated in casualty at all when i arrived, incedentally.

Managed to get away with only medium scarring to the eye surface and 95% normal vision.

Could have been worse eh.

Owain McRae.

AWD

Owain

Sounds like you're pretty lucky to have your eyesight still intact - not to mention surviving doing 130 in a 40 zone with only 1 eye working.

owbow

LOL yeah mate pushing it a bit and the 'ol depth perception just ain't there for roundabouts etc with 1 eye open!!!

wouldn't have done it during the day mind you, before i get slated!!

oh yeah, when i threw the bonnet aside, i didn't put it back on either - which interested the copper too!!!

Owain McRae.

AWD

I'm trying to imagine you doing your Stevie Wonder impersonation doing 130 in a 40 zone with one eye glued shut.

Doesn't really bear thinking about...

owbow

LOL yeah mate i wouldn't relish trying it in the rush hour...

Wouldn't relish getting that cr@p in my eye again either though!!!

Owain McRae.

owbow

LOL yeah mate i wouldn't relish trying it in the rush hour...

Wouldn't relish getting that cr@p in my eye again either though!!!

Owain McRae.

Jerome

Last Saturday afternoon, whilst waiting at some pedestrain traffic lights, a Mini overtook the stationary queue of traffic I was in, went through the red light - narrowly missing pedestrians - and turned left just passed the lights into a supermarket car park. I was so incensed (I have a thing about cars not stopping for pedestrians on crossings) I drove into the car park looking for said maniac. I saw his car and parked up. As I was looking for the driver, 2 women who looked shaken were nearby. I asked them if they'd seen which way the driver had gone. They told me he'd driven into the space hitting a shopping trolley, which had almost hit them. When the guy arrived back moments later, he was screaming for people to get out of the way because his wife was bleeding. His attitude (despite his wife's distressed state) annoyed me even more. No apologies for his driving. I even thought he was going to swing for me at one point - like that would have helped his wife!

Why the guy couldn't have called an ambulance, I'm not sure. Either way, it wouldn't have done his wife much good if he'd killed himself - or someone else - getting to her. He really did overstep the mark with his driving - even for an emergency.

Jerome.

owbow

What a nutcase.

Only reason i was willing to push it like i did in my case, was because it was in the early hours and really quiet...
Even then i did keep it in mind that the car (and me) would have to go in the wall before i'd hit a pedestrian or an oncoming vehicle.

Owain McRae.

Chip

For anyone that has a fire under the bonnet do not open the bonnet as this will merely feed the fire with more oxygen. To put out the fire aim your fire extinguisher anywhere you know the powder will swamp the engine compartment and starve the fire of oxygen.

When buying an extinguisher spend as much as you can, as the more expensive ones contain monnex (cheapy ones have bicarb of soda)which is much better when it comes to Oxygen starvation due to its finer nature. Hope this is of help. I personally know this works as I carry two extinguishers on my van and have put out three engine fires in the last few years.

Cheers
Chip.